Surrey NanoSystems, spun-out from the University of Surrey, has developed and commercialised a system which can grow ordered arrays of nanotubes at low temperatures in a predictable and, above all, repeatable fashion.

At the distinctly low-tech setting of Newhaven docks, a high-tech enterprise that believes small is beautiful is busy dreaming up products that could play a role in the development of the next generation of computer microprocessors.

The semiconductor industry typically uses aluminum or copper for on-chip interconnectors. Now researchers from UK company Surrey Nanosystems believe they have developed a machine, the NanoGrowth 1000n, that will effectively replace those materials with carbon nanotubes.